Contrary to Popular Belief
by hickorydaisy
Summary: Once upon a time, there were six supernatural types, and when two types had children with traits from both types, they were called Multinaturals. Now there are only five, and Multinaturals are outlawed by four of the remaining types. So where does a family with four Multinatural children hide? Cross-posted from Ao3.
1. Chapter 1

Most people don't look to discover new things. New things are discovered by accident while people look to confirm what they believe to be true. That's why a little all-vampire village existed within a highly populated area without ever being discovered. That, and a little bit of magic.

The village was called Cetten, and every Vampire there believed it to be the most perfect place on earth. They lacked nothing - there was more than enough sunscreen to protect their sensitive skin, and none of the other supernatural types ever bothered them much. And, most importantly, there were no humans they had to hide from.

However, one of the younger members of the community was a bit of a trouble maker by their standards.

"Alexander!"

"Sorry!" Alexander yelled back as he raced through the streets, laughing. He squeezed between a couple going shopping and cut through the park, making it home in record time. "Maman!" he yelled into the quiet house. "Maman!"

"Hush, Alexander!" Alexander's mother, Rachel, rounded the corner, step betraying the amount of purpose she constantly portrayed. Ever since they had moved here two years ago, right after Alexander's father had left and taken his older brother with him, Rachel had seemed to be bouncier, yet also somehow more bogged down, and it showed in her walk. "He's asleep right now, but I want to know is where you found him. Last I heard, Nagas were extinct."

"I found him in the woods right outside of town, Maman," Alexander chirped. "Is he really a Naga? Can I see him?"

"Yes, he is really a Naga, and I suppose you can see him," Rachel led her son back into the house, where she had laid the young Naga down to rest. Except when they got there, he was wide awake.

"Don't hurt me!" the little boy squeaked and backed against the wall. "I don't know anything, I promise!"

"Know anything? I just want to know your name, sweetheart. You were bleeding rather badly," Rachel attempted to calm the young Naga down.

"I-I guess I can tell you my name, since you healed me," the young child stuttered. "I'm A-ajax."

"Why did you think we were gonna hurt you?" Alexander asked, completely perplexed.

"You're Vampires," Ajax whispered fearfully. "And Vampires hunt us."

"But why?" Alexander asked.

"I've never heard of anything like that," Rachel commented. "Course, I also heard that all the Nagas had been killed off."

"M-most of us, yes! B-because of y-you!" Ajax continued to fumble his words, scared out of his wits, trembling against the wall.

"Well, we aren't mean like that!" Alexander declared, impassioned by the injustice of the idea that someone would try to kill a group of people just because they were snakes from the waist down. "Maman and I will keep you safe, promise!" Alexander grabbed Ajax's hands and gave the young Naga a beaming grin.

Suddenly, a loud blast thundered through the entire village, a rippling wave warning of destruction to come. Screaming began to fill the air, and Rachel's face flickered with panic before settling into a steely calm.

"Maman?" Alexander sounded uncertain, "What was that?"

"The Witch King has decided to pay Cetten a visit," Rachel said, grabbing Alexander's school backpack and shoving clothes into every bit of extra space it had.

"The Witch King! J-james said Witches were even worse than the Vampires during the War!" Ajax looked panicked, eyes wider than many would think possible, shaking from terror.

"The Witch King does not like non-witches," Rachel said, handing Alexander his backpack, which he put on but also looked very confused. "Alexander, I want you to take Ajax and run. Hide in the woods. I'll find you, but I need to check on the rest of the town first. You know how much the town relies on me."

"But, Maman -"

"No buts, Alexander! I have to do this. Gofor your safety. Both of you. I wish I could go with you. Now, go!" Rachel told them before turning and sprinting out the front door.

Alexander looked after her a second before turning and grabbing Ajax's hand and pulling him towards the back. "Come on, come on, we gotta go!"

"Obviously!" Ajax cried, and suddenly Alexander was the one being pulled along.

The two of them easily made it to the edge of the woods, the other inhabitants of the town being too panicked to pay attention to the two young boys, even if one of them had a snake tail instead of legs. After all, the other one was Alexander Hamilton, one of the youngest, most troublemaking, and most powerful Vampires in town. He probably did something to that other poor child. But after the two boys made it to the woods, things started to go wrong almost immediately.

Firstly, Ajax let go of Alexander's hand, and appeared to be deliberately trying to lose him, but Alexander was still keeping up at the moment.

Secondly, now that they were in the woods and not in the town itself, some of the other Vampires were beginning to snap out of their panicked haze, so the two boys had to be more careful.

Thirdly, Alexander kept tripping over things. Tree roots were truly evil, you know. Despicable things.

Despite all the opposition, though, they were still doing alright at first. And then there was an earsplitting scream from the town, so loud some of the other members of town clapped their hands over their ears and let out mini-shrieks from the pain. And although Alexander hoped he was wrong, he thought he recognized that voice.

"Maman?" Alexander whirled around, hoping that he was wrong. "Maman!" He began to panic. Where was his mother? What was happening? Where was Ajax? "Ajax?" Alexander turned back the way he had been going, but the Naga in question was no-where to be seen.

Alexander, now completely alone in the woods, mother quite possibly in a lot of danger, began to truly panic.

Rachel was concerned for the town. She'd helped it modernize, updated the school curriculum, lead a campaign to clean up the park. They'd even renamed the town after her, which she thought was supremely embarrassing, but Alexander had been so excited she'd let them go ahead and do it.

The town was her home, plain and simple, and she was not going to let some high and mighty Witch King destroy it! This was a Vampire town, he had no jurisdiction here!

Rachel made her way to the town square, where the King was riding in a horse-drawn coach like the last two centuries just hadn't happened, his two young grandchildren sitting across from him. The boy, Jake, if Rachel remembered correctly, looked rather scared of his grandfather, but the girl, Georgette maybe? Looked rather angry for a four year old. The King himself, Witch King George the Second, looked gleeful.

Rachel slowed to a walk, and, step heavy with purpose, weighed down by the livelihoods of everyone in the town, approached the coach.

The King turned and saw her, grin growing impossibly wider, a delighted expression that did not match those of his grandchildren at all, and they were more of an age where that kind of face would look alright. On the King, it just looked kinda creepy.

"So…" The King drawled, licking his lips, hopefully just to wet them, "A little Vampire has come to protect her town! How quaint. Positively adorable. Isn't that right, Jake?" His voice suddenly filled with venom as he turned to address his grandson, who said nothing, but slid closer to his sister.

"Jake!" The King prodded his Grandson with a walking stick. "I said, isn't that adorable?"

"Wha'evah you say, Gran'fafer," the boy finally spoke with a thick lisp, but even through it you could tell he didn't feel what he said. He sounded dead inside, like a husk of a person. He was only four, how was that possible?

"Witch King!" Rachel yelled to reclaim his attention. "Leave this town at once!"

"Why should I, little Vampire?" the King smirked at her. "I am the Witch King, the most powerful individual in the world!"

"Your title means nothing here! This is a Vampire town! We answer only to the Vampire President!" Rachel clenched her fists, glaring.

"Nothing? Really?" the King shot a blast of magic at her feet. "Perhaps my title holds no weight, but my power surely does!"

"I won't let you destroy my home!" Rachel yelled, unfurling the bat-like wings on her back and shooting into the air, reaching the tops of the tallest buildings in mere seconds.

"Oh," the King grinned. "Playtime! This will be fun!" he aimed another blast at Rachel, this one headed straight for her chest.

This time, Rachel was prepared for the attack and deftly swerved out of the way and began to dive-bomb the King's coach, glowing orbs of dark energy gathering in her hands, like little spiders of electricity, trailing darkness behind the angry vampire.

Down below, the King only laughed, but the young Princess gasped and dragged her brother out of the vehicle, afterward turning and glancing at her grandfather with an expression that could only be called dissapointed disbelief, carefully curled hair now falling into her face, completely disheveled.

The King continued to giggle and swished his scepter through the air, summoning a wave of flames ten feet high, causing Rachel to have to pull up sharply. As it was, she could feel some of her sunscreen melting off, causing her expression to briefly morph to one of alarm as her skin began to burn.

"Scared, little Vampire?" The King continued to let the fire burn, not noticing his grandchildren scrambling away from it in a panic, as he had payed no mind to their location before, why should he care now?

"Never! I will protect my home for the sake of all who live here!" Rachel cried and flung the orbs that she still had in her hands.

One of the dark orbs missed, breaking the wheel of the coach and causing the King's composure to slip for a nanosecond as he fell, but he quickly righted himself, just in time to block the second orb. He then made a show of yawning before sending a volley of blasts at Rachel, a sadistic smirk on his face.

Rachel yelped and wove through the blasts, none managing to hit her, but failed to notice that she was being herded. She was forced to land with her back to the monarch, and he took that opportunity to slice through her body, very nearly cutting her body in half.

Rachel's eyes flew wide as her body stilled and she fell forwards with a scream, landing with a thud not ten feet from where the prince and princess had hidden in their panic. Seeing them on her way down, Rachel thought, 'I refuse to leave Alexander by himself…'

Then the strangest thing happened. Rachel began to feel… weightless, she supposed, would be the closest word. She opened her eyes and saw… herself? She lifted her hand in front of her face and -

It was transparent. She was a ghost. She was dead. She had unfinished business. Business? No. Alexander.

"Well now," The king grinned. "A ghostie! Can't fight me anymore, can you! Hey - where are you going!"

Rachel took off towards the woods, not really stopping to think about what she was doing or really how she was doing it. There was one thing that mattered, and that was Alexander. She'd tried to protect the town, tried to protect their home, but she'd failed. She couldn't fail again, not in protecting the one thing more important than the town. The one person more important than the town.

"Alexander!" she yelled as she entered the woods. "Alexander!"

Alexander was beginning to panic. That scream had sounded like his mother, and… well… that wasn't good. On top of that, he was lost, and Ajax had disappeared. Nothing was going right, it seemed.

"Alexander! Alexander!" Came a yell that sounded like his mother from elsewhere in the trees. Alexander nearly sobbed in relief.

"Maman!" he yelled back.

"Alexander!" His mother yelled again, just as she came into view, and Alexander gasped.

"Maman… you're a ghost…" Alexander began to tear up.

"I'm sorry, Alexander," Rachel reached out and sort of passed her hand through Alexander's cheek. "I failed you."

"Maman…" a tear rolled down his face. "Why…?"

"The Witch King… destroyed everything…" Rachel looked slightly wistful. "I couldn't leave you alone, Alexander."

Alexander nodded and wiped his tears off with his sleeve.

"You can't stay here, love," Rachel told him, "He'll kill you too. Follow me, we'll get out of here."

"O-ok," Alexander said, and Rachel took off again, wishing she could cry.

Alexander didn't know how long he'd been following his mother. He did know that he was slowly getting less and less of a shock every time he saw his mother and she was all white and see-through. It was still off-putting, but less so. He wasn't sure what to think of that.

"We can't stop here, Alexander," Rachel's voice filtered back through the trees. "We have to find a larger group."

"I don't understand, Maman," Alexander whimpered. "Who are you looking for?"

"Werewolves," Rachel replied. "Witches usually try to avoid werewolves, I'm not sure why, but it means if we can find a wolf pack, we'll be safe."

Alexander seemed to consider his mother's answer for a minute, and then nodded. He didn't know much about inter-supernatural type politics as of yet, but knew that the werewolves had only the loosest of central governments, especially when compared to the Vampire Presidency and the Three Kingdoms.

Alexander did know, however, that he was dead on his feet. He felt groggy, like he was looking through science experiment slime and walking through syrup. He wasn't sure how much further he could go.

With how out of it he was feeling, it was hardly surprising when he tripped over a root and made an awful lot of noise in the process. What was surprising were the two… what were they? Alexander couldn't see them clearly… that emerged to investigate. There was a tall one and a short one, and the last thing Alexander heard before drifting off to dreamland was the tall one, a male, saying:

"Bring him to the clearing, Maria. We need to know why he's here."


	2. Chapter 2

Maria didn't understand why she had to drag the boy back to the clearing. From the looks of it, he was about her age, and from the feel of it, he was pretty heavy. James was older, he could carry this Vampire Boy back much easier than she!

The trip itself was rather painful. Maria was already unwieldy, but carrying this boy was making it three times harder to not trip over things. So far, on the incredibly short trip back to Full Moon Clearing, she'd tripped on four different tree roots and two separate rocks. Yeah, pretty pathetic, she knew, but whatever. She was twelve, she wasn't supposed to have to carry other twelve-year-olds (maybe)!

When they (finally, Maria thought) made it back to the clearing, James told her to stand watch over the boy she had lugged back before stalking off to talk to his Beta wolves. Politics.

Maria rolled her eyes. Just because James was technically her older brother did not mean she had to do everything he said! She was her own girl, and she was old enough now she didn't need to be babied or bossed around. It was then that she noticed that the ghost had stayed her, hovering over the boy.

"Hello," Maria asked the ghost. She looked like a bleached character from a cartoon, but Maria had never seen a character that looked like this woman. She had long flowing hair that when combined with the high spiky collar on her jacket gave her a very fearsome look, but she was far too pretty to be a cartoon villain, with a soft, motherly face and knee-length sundress that seemed to be permanently flared out a little bit. Maria thought she was the most wondrous looking woman she had ever seen.

"What will your pack to do him?" the ghost spoke without looking at Maria, opting instead to move closer to the boy protectively.

"I don't know," Maria admitted. "I'm twelve, and my brother says that's too young to be one of his Betas, but I want to have a say in what happens in the pack! It affects me too, so shouldn't I get a say too?"

""I won't let any of you hurt my son. I believed that you could help us."

"We can!" Maria yelped, clenching her fists. "I know the pack has enough resources. James has me take inventory lots of times, so I know that we have more than enough! I just… I don't know if James will."

The ghost woman turned to look at Maria for the first time, her blank eyes glowing in the low dusklight. "I thought you said you weren't getting a say in the rules?"

"Um, no. I'm not a Beta. Do you not know how Werewolf politics work?" Maria tilted her head curiously.

""Not really, no," the ghost woman looked at her oddly, like she was trying to read Maria's mind.

Maria grinned. "The head of the pack is called the Alpha, in this case my brother James. Then the Alpha hand picks six Betas to serve as his counsel to help create the rules of the pack. Then a separate were is picked to be the Gamma, the pack's representative to the overall wolf counsel and other high profile events. The Gamma is also the prospective heir to the pack, so if something happens to the Alpha, the Gamma becomes the Alpha. The rest of the pack doesn't actually have a title, but we're sometimes called "Omegas" by ignorant outsiders or arrogant title-holders."

"That's fascinating," the ghost woman actually smiled slightly. "But then why do you do inventory?"

Maria rolled her eyes. "James is lazy, and has me do as many of his responsibilities as he can."

The ghost woman made a slight face and a quiet noise of acknowledgement, but then turned back to her son silently. They sat in silence until the sun came up the next morning.

Maria wasn't sure when she fell asleep, but she did know that when she came too, there was a vampire boy prodding her and giggling. "Hey, werewolf girl, wake up!"

"That's not my name," Maria groaned as she sat up, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes and taking in the Vampire Boy fully, now that he was awake. He seemed oddly disheveled, but well put together. His backpack was no longer on his back, and from the looks of it he had been reading a book about… well, she wasn't sure what it was about, but there was a picture of a boy in a raft on the front, so maybe it was about a boy in a raft. His eyes were actually quite mesmerizing, darker than blood but brighter than the full moon on the pond. How beautiful.

"Yeah, but I don't know your name, and neither does Maman," the boy gestured at the ghost woman. That's right, this was her son, Maria remembered now. "My name's Alexander, by the way," he went on to say.

Maria nodded. "Maria."

"Well Maria, can you tell me anything about what's happening?" Alexander gave her a lopsided grin, like he didn't have control over the other half of his face.

"I was hoping you could tell me something, honestly," Maria yawned. "James never tells me anything, all said and told."

Alexander cocked his head oddly when she said her brother's name, then shook it, perhaps to clear it, and muttered something under his breath. Maria thought it sounded like, "It's a common name," but honestly Maria had no clue why Alexander would say something like that, so she might have been wrong.

"What was that?" Maria asked, hoping to get Alexander to tell her what he had just said, but not really expecting it to work, but it couldn't hurt to try.

"Hmm? Oh, nothing!" Alexander rubbed the back of his neck and smiled sheepishly, eyes closed and all. He was the very picture of a bad liar. "Now, what did you want to know?" he unsubtly attempted to change the subject. Maria decided to go with it.

"What happened to you and your mother that caused you to come to this neck of the woods?" she asked, smiling but nervous.

"The Witch King," Alexander replied simply, looking down at the ground and drawing random patterns in the dirt with his finger.

"The Witch King? George the Second? What was he doing anywhere near this area?"

"I… I don't know. He was burning the town, though, destroying it, tearing down our home, so Maman went to try to stop him but…" Alexander choked up a moment, then spat out the words, tears in his eyes. "He killed her!"

"I'm so sorry, Alexander," his mother said from where she was hovering nearby. "I failed you. In so many ways."

"Maman!" Alexander looked up at his spectral mother, "It's not your fault! That mean king is the one that killed you!"

"If it really was George II, you really can't blame yourself," Maria broke in, "He's insane, and he won't stop at anything to get what he wants - recently, destruction."

"Why does he want destruction?" Alexander asked, tilting his head ever so innocently and blinking his adorable red eyes.

"I think, if I'm judging the interactions I saw correctly," Rachel put her finger on her chin and sat in midair, which looked rather odd, "I believe the King was trying to impress his grandson into… something. The grandson did not look very convinced or impressed, truth be told."

"That's odd… so much destruction… to impress a four-year-old child? That makes no sense, politically, personally, economically, or any other -lly I can think of!" Maria said, throwing her arms wide to illustrate her point.

"I honestly haven't heard very much about Prince Jake," Alexander commented, looking thoughtful. "Just that the King had release a statement that his sister, Princess Georgette, was now Crown Princess Georgette."

"Maria!" suddenly, a voice snapped from off to the werewolf girl's right. She jumped and turned to face to source of the voice.

"James! Um… what do you need?" Maria stood up and faced him, face splitting into a painfully fake smile, hands hidden behind her back, everything seeming twitchy, like she was fully prepared to bolt at a moment's notice. Alexander's mother seemed to note that this was rather unusual behavior to be expressing to one's brother.

"You are not supposed to speak to the vampires! You titleless b-child! Get out of my sight. I will speak to the vampire and former vampire," James caught himself from calling his little sister a very nasty name. He did not, however, stop himself from yelling at her, launching droplets of spit at Maria's face, his own twisted into an awful shape.

"Of course," Maria said, quickly, far too quickly, then turned and fled the clearing. She felt bad for abandoning the Vampires, but couldn't bring herself to go back. The edge of the clearing grew nearer and nearer - she cleared the boundary.

The forest itself was a wonderful safe haven. The birds twittered far off in their trees, crickets chirped in the undergrowth, she saw fluffy rodents pass by every once in awhile. The forest meant everything to Maria. It was where she hid when James was angry, when Beta Monroe was trying to frame her for things again. It was where she found comfort when she was sad, where she hid things James tried to take from her.

Deep down, she knew James wasn't going to help the Alexander and his mother. But she knew that they could. No - that she could. She had hidden more than enough things in the woods, terrified James would one day become so mad at her she would have to spend the night, or a week, or even months hiding in the woods. She would grab one of her stashes and give it to Alexander. The one at the great stump, as it was the closest and one of the largest, would probably be best. Yes, she would give him the one from the great stump.

The great stump wasn't very far from the clearing, but if you didn't know where you were going, you would probably miss it. The stump itself was hollowed out a long time ago, probably to tan animal hides, but the trees around it grew thick and close together. Centuries old trees fought high above the stump for sunlight, meaning that the stump itself was constantly shrouded in shadow. All of these things meant that simply placing things inside the stump was hiding them very well.

Maria had been storing things in the stump for a very long time; it was her oldest stash. She supposed that in that way it was like she had grown a different kind of tree inside it - a kind of tree made of food and clothes and bottles of water. She wasn't sure how much of that Alexander could use, but she didn't care. He had come here looking for help, and Maria was going to give it to him!

At the very bottom of the stash was an old backpack, with a single book inside it - Mary Poppins. She couldn't remember much of it now, but she remembered she used to read it again and again every moment she could. She had loved the whimsy that came with Mary's kind of magic, but as she got older, all the whimsy of the world was drained away, until she was just Titleless Maria Reynolds, the Alpha's little sister who he piled most of his duties on. Reading about Mary and the children had turned from an escape into a horrifyingly unattainable fantasy that she was acutely aware she couldn't have. It began to only make her feel sad, so she had hidden it here, in hopes that one day she could bring herself to open it again. But perhaps she should just give it to Alexander. Perhaps he could still find whimsy in the world. Yes - she would leave Mary Poppins in the backpack when she gave it to Alexander.

Satisfied with her decision to leave Mary Poppins in the bag, she began to fill the thing with other things she had hidden here. She stuffed in a few shirts and even a few skirts, as she didn't own any pants (it was uncomfortable to stuff her tail in there!), along with some of the food items she had, like weeks-old granola bars, stacks of crushed Saltines, a couple boxes of Kraft Mac n Cheese, and a bottle of vitamins she had found, still entirely full, in Beta Monroe's trash.

As soon as she had finished stuffing the backpack full of various things she hoped would benefit the young Vampire, Maria heard her name being calling from back inside the clearing, James' voice carrying heavy over the forest. Not wanting to risk his ire, or miss Alexander's departure, Maria hurriedly zipped up the backpack and raced back to the clearing, letting the straps all the way as she went, so it could fit over Alexander's other backpack.

The clearing had hardly changed during the short time she had been gone in the woods, but she already felt out of place. She shook her head. That was normal when she first got back from the woods. She'd feel at home again soon enough, surely.

Alexander had put his book back in his backpack and was standing on the opposite edge of the clearing while his mother hovered in front of James and pleaded with him to help her child. James looked so far beyond caring that Maria wanted to hit him, but knew it would only get her in trouble.

While James dismissed Alexander's mother once again, saying they would bring the witches to the wolf pack, which was complete and utter nonsense if Maria had ever heard it, Maria crept over to Alexander and handed him her backpack.

"Here," Maria said, "I scraped together what I could from my personal stash, so I hope it helps."

"Thank you," Alexander gave Maria this look, like wonder and acceptance and hope and joy and the dispelling of hatred. For a moment, Maria felt a spark of whimsy, like Mary Poppins had patted her on the head. It was a glorious moment, and she very nearly asked Alexander to take her with him before -

"Maria! What are you doing?" James snapped, as Alexander's mother had apparently given up trying James when she saw Maria give Alexander her backpack.

"N-nothing important, James," Maria stuttered, backing away from everyone, knowing that the backpack was the best and the worst thing she could have done at the same time. She could not regret that whimsy, could not regret that hope, but James would try to make her.

For the moment, James only huffed, his Betas escorting Alexander out of the clearing. Everyone stood silently, waiting, until the Betas returned, hours later, with the news that the Vampire Boy and his mother were no longer in territory. Then James turned to Maria, grabbed her by the wrist, and dragged her home.

"What were you thinking?" James roared, spit spraying into Maria's face as he held her by her upper arms, fingers digging in so hard Maria thought they might bruise. "Helping that Vampire like that? What the hell, bitch?"

"I-it was my personal stuff, it doesn't affect the pack -" Maria tried to defend herself, although she knew the attempt was more than likely futile.

Maria's suspicion that her attempt would not work was confirmed when her head was forcibly snapped to the side and cheek started to hurt - James had slapped her.

"Like hell it does, bitch. Now they'll think we're soft. Get the fuck outta my sight," James shoved her to the floor and stalked out the house, fuming.

Maria could hardly think. She lifted her hand up to her stinging cheek as tears rolled down her face, but it didn't feel real. Maria felt trapped in this waking nightmare.


	3. Chapter 3

"John! Princess Martha is here!" John's father's voice rippled through the water.

"Coming!" John called back, giggling a bit as he swam down through the palace. His face was split into a huge grin, showing off his sharp fangs and his eyes were glowing green, brighter than normal. He was excited - Princess Martha (or rather, Mona) was his best friend - from the other side of the continent.

"Prince John!" called a guard. "Be careful! We are currently dealing with a seaweed infestation!"

John slowed down a bit and waved to the guard. "Okay! Thank you!" he called, before turning and swimming down more.

John reached the throne room very quickly, laughter on the tip of his tongue, but now that he was at the throne room, he had to hold it in. How unseemly it would be, for one of the princes to enter laughing? Father would never forgive him.

"Presenting," another guard began to yell, which honestly seemed to be the only thing they ever did, "Prince John Laurens of the Arcanian Merpeople Kingdom!"

"Thank you," John's father said, "That will be all." He dismissed the guard without fanfare and turned to Mona and her father. "We need to talk," he said to Mona's father, then gestured towards John and Mona. "You two. Go… collect seashells or something."

John nodded and grabbed Mona's hand and pulled her towards the exit in the roof. "Com'on, Mona!" he grinned.

Once the duo was outside of the castle proper, Mona turned to her partner in crime and smirked. "We're going to the surface, right?" John asked, responding to the look on her face.

"Oh, be quiet, you big baby," Mona rolled her eyes as she resumed her trip towards the surface of the water, hitting John in the face with her bright blue tail on the way.

"Ow! Mona!" John chased after his friend. "That was mean! Mona! Come back!"

The two young merpeople continued their quest to the surface of the ocean, teasing each-other the whole way, giggling and laughing like this was the best day of their lives. The ripples in the water created by their tails left temporary trails and created a dazzling not-quite-landscape that would challenge many an artist to recreate.

The royal duo, upon reaching the surface, swam towards the shoreline, giggling and joking all the way, poking each-other's shoulders and pouting when the other didn't laugh at what they said.

"And then Martha said 'The sea was so full of seaweed it was not unlike the sky full of stars', which is totally false but whatever," John recounted a conversation with his little sister that had taken place the week before, gesturing wildly with his hands, sticking them above the water at least twice.

"Tell Martha I'm impressed by her litotes," Mona laughed, bringing a hand up to her mouth as she chortled.

"Show off!" John shoved Mona, pouting. "Litotes is an unnecessary word and you know it!"

"Aw, but the look on your face when I use big words is so adorable, John!" Mona poked her friend and swam ahead, face breaking into a wide grin as she hit sand. "Hey look, we're here!"

Mona smirked as her tail split and formed into two distinct shapes, those being her legs, and her scales shifted, sliding up her person to curl around her arms and pattern her face, giving her an otherworldly look, like some sort of ancient deity.

John followed quickly, cute pout on his face, tail splitting, scales shifting, and voice griping, "It's unfair to speed ahead like that, Mona! We're supposed to stick together! What if one of us gets lost?"

"If we're together, we could both get lost, John," Mona rolled her eyes and grabbed his hand. "Come on, we gotta put clothes on, we aren't under the sea anymore!"

The two naked, scale-covered children walked over to a hollow tree, stocked with a rather extensive wardrobe, which mostly consisted of John's clothes if they were honest. They pulled out clothes and threw them on hastily, knowing that on land, nudity was looked down upon, which was very different from down below, where it was the norm.

Within a few minutes, the two merpeople were fully clothed, Mona wearing a pastel pink sundress, jean jacket, and knee-high boots, and John wearing a pair of jeans, a white long-sleeved undershirt, and a green t-shirt with a graphic of a sea turtle. After that, they began making their way to a nearby Amusement Park, where they consistently managed to pass the scales on their face off for face-paint, not yet possessing the magical skill to mask them.

The journey was going great, the duo softly giggling and dashing ahead of one-another in mock races every two feet before stopping and waiting for the other to catch up. They were nearing "The Tunnel" as they called it, for it seemed to separate the shore from everything else in the town, when they hit a bump in their ever-so-routine plan.

John was darting ahead again, giggling, and more importantly, looking back at a laughing Mona instead of looking where he was going. This became a very clear mistake when he ran into someone head-on.

"Oww…" John moaned, sitting on his behind on the asphalt of the empty road as he lifted a hand to rub at his head. He wasn't really sure why, he hadn't hit his head, but it just seemed like the right thing to do.

"John!" Mona sounded frantic as she raced towards her friend. "John, are you ok?"

"Alexander!" another voice, just as frantic as Mona's if not more so, with an almost ethereal echo, rang out and swept over the merpeople like a comforting blanket of sound. "Alexander, my baby, are you ok?"

"I'm fine, Maman," a young male voice responded, drawing the adventuring duo's eyes over to the one that John had run into.

Eyes flew wide in obvious surprise as they discovered that John had collided head first - with a Vampire. John's jaw dropped down, eyes bugged out, and breath held in, but Mona… well, Mona screamed.

"WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!" Mona yelled, hands flying up to tangle themselves into her hair, face with an expression similar to John's, just with more - how to put it - disbelief.

"Oh no…" The vampire boy seemed to curl in on himself, blood red eyes glancing up from where his head was slightly lowered, looking quite distraught by the encounter.

"THERE'S A GHOST WITH THE VAMPIRE WHAT THE FUCK!" Mona continued to yell, either not hearing the vampire boy's distress or ignoring it, but John appeared to snap out of his stupor as he stared at the red-eyed child, who couldn't possibly be older than himself, and shook his head to clear it before looking at the ghost in question.

The ghost in question was a regal-looking woman, and if it wasn't for the fact that the Vampires no longer had a monarchy in America, John would have thought he was looking at a member of the royal family. Her high spiked collar framed her head flawlessly, and her long, weightless hair floated around her head giving her an ethereal look, like some sort of goddess. Her eyes though… they were a bit creepy in that they had no pupil - the slit pupil of a vampire ceased to exist when they became a ghost, John remembered that from his lessons, but that didn't make her less terrifying, especially when she looked angry as all hell.

"If there is one thing I will not allow," the scary ghost woman said softly, "It is the air WASTED on yelling at MY SON for NO REASON!" her voice rose and rose until she was shouting the last words, hair drifting and creating a glorious corona around her head.

Mona looked cowed, shocked expression morphing into one more akin to terror, as she raised her arms in front of her chest and backed away a few steps, looking to flee but unwilling to leave John.

"Are you ok?" John asked the vampire boy he had run into, only now really taking him in. He had blood-red eyes that shimmered like the liquid, dark hair that might have been brown or black (it was hard to tell while sitting in the shadow of the tunnel like this), little baby fangs that honestly reminded John of his own fangs, and the most adorable smile he'd ever seen, at least now that he was smiling sort of half-heartedly at his mother's defense of him. Crap. Merpeople weren't supposed to think Vampires were cute.

"I'm fine," The cute boy looked shocked, perhaps because Mona had been yelling? John wasn't sure.

"IF THERE IS ONE THING I DEPLORE," the boy's utterly terrifying mother was still yelling at Mona, "IT'S WHEN -"

"Maman!" the boy got his mother's attention. "Maman, I think it was an accident, and maybe shock? We didn't see any other Vampires around here…"

"Hmph. Even so, she should not have responded by yelling at you like that!" the otherworldly woman drifted back over to her child.

"I-I'm sorry," Mona stuttered, "I just… I thought the only other supernaturals around here were the werewolves! Never seen Vampires around here before…" her hands went behind her back and her face went red, which made the blue scales stand out all the more.

"Well, we're travelling," the ghost woman snapped. "My name is Rachel and this is my son, Alexander. Now the polite thing to do is for the two of you to introduce yourselves!"

"I'm John, and this is my friend Mona," John stood up and brushed himself off. "It's nice to meet you, or at least interesting!" He beamed in a manner he hoped seemed friendly.

"Hmm. Merpeople. And how did a couple of merpeople end up running into my baby boy?" Rachel glared at John, like she could extract the information from his brain.

"Maman!" Alexander protested. "I wasn't exactly looking where I was going either!" He also pouted at his mother, which was simply one of the cutest things John had ever seen (his siblings were cuter when they pouted, which was honestly impossible to top). Was everything about this boy designed to entrant? He was doing a very good job of it.

However, his mother seemed able to resist her son's adorable charms, because she simply rolled her eyes and said, "Fine. We need to find a place for you to rest anyway. We don't want a repeat of what happened with the wolfpack."

What happened with the wolfpack? What? John recoiled slightly and wrinkled his nose in thought, considering the confusing words. How long had Alexander been traveling? Looking at him again, John noted that Alexander was wearing two backpacks, one on top of the other, and both bulging at the seams. How much longer was he planning to stay on the road, if he needed that much stuff? Carrying it couldn't be comfortable.

"Are you ok?" John asked Alexander, looking quite concerned.

"Huh? Why do you ask?" Alexander looked perplexedly at John, blinking his blood-red eyes innocently. It was beyond cute, and John felt a bit flustered. He hoped it wasn't obvious.

"I-I mean, you look exhausted and you're carrying two backpacks," John rubbed the back of his neck and looked up at the sky, crossing one foot behind the other and using his toes to rub the back of his other heel.

Alexander looked kind of shocked that John had asked, but nodded, "I'm doing fine, or at least as good as I can, considering everything," he replied, giving John a lopsided grin.

"Alexander, do you trust this merperson?" Rachel asked, sounding more curious than angry.

"I mean, I don't have a reason not to," Alexander looked up at his mother and gave a small smile. "Besides, maybe they can help in some way?"

"Oh, Alexander," Rachel sighed and glanced back at the Merpeople. "I suppose… we don't exactly have many other options… if they'll help, we're in no position to turn it down."

"Help with what?" John asked, looking over Alexander. Now that he was looking at Alexander's clothing and not his incredibly alluring face, he noted that the young vampire's clothes were ripped and tattered and utterly filthy, like they hadn't been washed after weeks of wear. Yikes, maybe they could help.

"John!" Mona interjected, "We don't know these vampires! What if they're going to hurt us, or eat us, or something?"

"They would have done it already," John rolled his eyes. "Really, Mona, we're two young merpeople who clearly don't yet possess great magical skill, we clearly can't even cloak the scales on our face!"

"But the little boy is smaller than us! They have even less power than us, so they're going to have to ambush us to overpower us! Honestly, John!" Mona turned towards John and gestured behind her towards Alexander and his mother.

"I'm feeling a little insulted," Alexander piped up, face rather deadpan as he finally began to stand up, brushing off his rather destroyed pants with a huff.

"I'm so sorry," John stepped around Mona, "I don't know what I can do to help, but if I can, I will!"

"John!" Mona yelped, waving her arms up and down like a demented windmill.

"Mona, I ran into him! Literally! What if Lady Pytha wants me to help him?" John glanced back at his friend.

Mona's eyes went a little wide, then she seemed to shrink back a little bit. "You really think that Lady Pytha might want us to help?"

"Lady Pytha says to help all fellow beings, even the humans. Of course she'd want us to help Alexander and his mother!" John rolled his eyes at his friend and turned back towards the young vampire and scary ghost woman.

"I've never actually seen anyone listen to that portion of the Sayings," Rachel commented, looking a bit bewildered but happy. "The laws against multinaturals usually keep relations between supernatural types strained. From the stories I've heard and the history books I've read, the last time we were truly united was the American Revolution, at least here in America, overseas I'm not sure. But then -"

"-Things got worse and worse, the other Supernaturals grew increasingly scared of the power that Multinaturals and Nagas held, and waged war on them, around the same time as the American Civil War but completely separate because the humans' civil war was over completely separate issues, and the 'normal' Supernaturals won, and the war ended with the systematic slaughter of both the Nagas and the Multinaturals. Afterward, the Witches, Vampires, Fairies, and Merpeople outlawed multinaturals, saying that if one was discovered they would be executed and their parents would be exiled from the country. However, the Werewolves, who fought of the side of the Multinaturals and Nagas, did not outlaw them, and in the past century and a half have been found on multiple occasions to be hiding Multinatural children, but because the other Supernatural types cannot legally search a wolfpack, it is suspected that most wolfpacks are hiding one or more multinaturals. Maman, I know that. And it makes me angry too, but it's kinda irrelevant, don't you think?" Alexander rattled off the information in a dull monotone and rolled his eyes.

"Wh-what?!" Mona gaped. "They were systematically slaughtered? Why? I-I've never heard this…" she reached up and tangled her hand in her hair, biting her lip.

"You… didn't know that?" Alexander looked at her with wide eyes, like he couldn't believe she didn't know that.

"I'd never heard about that either," John spoke up. "My tutor kinda glazed over the Naga War in general, and didn't mention the stuff about Multinaturals at all."

"Honestly, what were you taught then?" Rachel looked at him in shock, which was kinda creepy, because she was staring at him in complete stunned silence with her blank, empty eyes, hair still drifting in a terrifying corona.

"Etiquette? Contemporary politics? Honestly that's about it," John shrugged.

"That's… terrifying… How are you supposed to understand the politics if you don't understand the reasons behind the politics? Oh dear…" Rachel honestly looked a little bit ill, or as ill as a ghost can get.

"Maman, are you ok?" Alexander looked at his mother in concern before turning his gaze towards John. "That really is scary, you know. The War of the Naga is one of the most important events in our history, and that you don't know what happened at the end of it speaks of misfortune for our future."

"Uh…" John wasn't really sure how to respond to that. How was anyone really supposed to respond to someone shattering their worldview. Oh, hell. This boy was smart. "Are you hungry?" He blurted out. "I can fish."

"Are you offering to fish for me?" Alexander's rather worried looking expression suddenly morphed into one of amusement, although it could have just been because of the sudden subject change.

"If you like," John flushed and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Thanks! I haven't had anything to drink since last Wednesday!" Alexander grinned, flashing his fangs at the Merpeople. Mona recoiled a little, evidently scared of them, but John just flushed deeper.

Why did everything this vampire did make him more attractive? He was so alluring John felt like he was going to explode from the glowing feeling in his chest. Crap. When did that happen?

"Well, uh, the shore is this way," John pointed behind him, and turned, leading Alexander towards the ocean, determined to assist the boy in any way he could. John heard two sets of footsteps behind his, Mona's light and flighty steps, almost skipping along the road, and Alexander's new pattern - heavy, fast steps, possibly only heavy due to the two backpacks hanging off the shoulders of the adorable young supernatural of the night.

Upon reaching the shore, John began to pull his clothes back off, which made Alexander advert his eyes for a moment, before realizing that merpeople didn't wear clothes most of the time anyway, they lived underwater for Pytha's sake, so Alexander was more embarrassed than John, which made no sense really, so Alexander stopped averting his eyes, determined to get over it. John finished taking his clothes off and dove into the water, his legs disappearing and combining into his tail, green scales glistening in the early morning sunlight.

Mona rolled her eyes at her friend's antics and proceeded to remove her own clothing and plunged into the water with a splash while Alexander sat down on the shore and removed both backpacks from his back and stretched his arms up towards the sky and rolling his shoulders, hoping they would stop aching, but it was unlikely, considering he still had to get moving to find somewhere where he could stop, not just rest. He'd have to put them back on soon enough. Just like every time before.

Soon enough, John popped back up to the surface of the water, a fish clenched in his teeth. John lifted his hands out of the water and spat the fish into them before giving Alexander a beaming grin that channeled the sun.

"Is that for me?" Alexander tilted his head innocently, beaming. "I'm hungry!"

"Yep!" John handed Alexander the fish, carefully tipping it into Alexander's hands.

Alexander smiled at John and then shoved the fish into his mouth, inserting his fangs into the holes John's fangs had left behind, and then began to suck. Within a matter of moment, the fish began to show visible signs of drying out. John watched in astonishment as Alexander finished draining the fish of all it's blood and then spat the now dried-out fish into his lap, proceeding to look up at John and grin sheepishly.

"Can you get me any more?" Alexander looked embarrassed to ask, but also still very thirsty.

At that very moment, Mona bursts through the surface tension, another fish in her mouth. She spat the fish into her hand and glances at Alexander and noticed the dried fish in his lap, before her jaw dropped and her eyes bugged out. "Seriously?! John got you a fish faster than me? Not only that, but you've already eaten it? How?"

"Can I have that one too?" Alexander asked, pointing to it instead of answering either of Mona's rhetorical questions.

"Huh? Oh, ok," Mona handed Alexander the second fish, which he immediately shoved in his mouth, draining it even faster than the first one.

"Thank you!" Alexander chirped. "I should get going again. I can't exactly stop here. I gotta find somewhere to stay. Thank you for the fish!"

"You're leaving?" John felt sad, even though he'd only just met Alexander. "Oh… well, I hope I see you again someday? Oh! There's a hollow tree just a little ways straight back from here… most of the clothes in it are mine, help yourself!"

"Thanks," Alexander grinned, stood up, and put his backpacks back on. "For the fish and the clothes. I hope I see you around someday too. Hopefully not too soon." Afterward, he turned around and walked away, his mother joining him and floating along behind her son, as John watched the two of them walk away until they were no longer visible.

"Johnny," Mona pulled on his arm, "We need to go back to your house now. Your dad is gonna notice we aren't there soon!"

"Yeah, yeah, you're right," John said, seeming a little bit out of it as he dived back into the water and began swimming back towards his home, Mona right behind him.

"You know you won't be able to ever have any sort of relationship with him," Mona said suddenly, about halfway home. "I know you like him, you weren't exactly subtle."

"Shut up," John shoved Mona away a bit. "Mona, that's not funny."

"Even though the two of you couldn't have a child together, the laws against multinaturals will still mean you could be exiled! John… promise me you aren't going to try to find him again." Mona looked at her friend with concern in her eyes.

"I can't control if I run into him again… but I promise I won't go looking for him," John looked down, his eyes like wellpools of sadness, but Mona couldn't see then.

"John…" Mona looked back up towards the surface and sighed. "I don't think we should go up there anymore."

"What? Mona, you're kidding!" John yelped, twisting to face his friend.

"I'm not! We were never supposed to be up there in the first place, and now we've messed things up. We can't go up there anymore, John."

"But -" John tried to interject, but Mona turned downward and swam off without another word, leaving John floating in the middle of the ocean.


	4. Chapter 4

Ding-da-ring-ding-dong-ding-ding! Ding-da-ring-ding-dong-ding-ding!

Talk about annoying alarm clocks. The Bells of Dawn at St. Michelle's temple could be heard throughout the Fae capital, Taloria. It wasn't an annoying noise on it's own, but when it has been your wake-up call for every single day of your life, it gets a little tiring. At least, that was Eliza's opinion on the matter.

The Fae Princess slipped out of bed, her hair a mess on one side and still fairly well brushed on the other, her backless nightgown bunched up around her waist. The sun shone in her tall windows and practically spotlighted the beautiful rug she landed on after removing herself from the bed. Just another day, really.

Eliza grabbed her brush and re-did her hair before pulling on the long, fancy, frilly blue gown the royal staff had laid out for her the night before. Once she was mostly clothed, she slipped on her shoes and placed her royal circlet on her head before fast walking - running was never allowed when she was wearing a gown - down to the dining room.

The dining room itself was rather plain. Sure, it had high, vaulted ceilings, but so did every other room in the palace. The walls were painted a dull brown, and there was no real artwork or other decor to create interest. The only furniture in the room was the oversized table, which could seat as many as a hundred, all at once. When there was only the royal family, it just made the room feel empty.

Eliza sat in-between her older sister Angelica and her younger sister Cornelia, and across from her sister Peggy. Breakfast was, as always, a large and varied assortment of various foodstuffs, taking up far more of the table than there were actually people sitting there. Eliza served herself a ham and cheese omelet, as it was the closest thing to her.

"Eliza, as I was telling everyone, the diplomats from the Vampire Presidency are coming today, and I want you to be on your best behavior, alright?" Queen Catherine, Eliza's mother, addressed her.

"Yes, Mother," Eliza nodded politely and began to eat her omelet.

The room was eerily silent. There was no conversation at the table, everyone just sat and ate. The deafening quiet ate away at Eliza.

'What would be the harm,' Eliza thought to herself, 'If I were to sneak away and find someone to talk to?' Someone who would listen to her because she was a person, not because she was royalty or ignore her because she was young - why, that sounded positively perfect!

The real issue with this train of thought was that Eliza could find no downsides this time, everyone was busy today with either lessons or flying practice or getting ready for the diplomats - except Eliza.

Eliza made up her mind to slip away after breakfast, which wasn't hard. Once breakfast was done, she just said she was headed back up to her room to read for a while and left, and no-one was the wiser of her real plans.

Back in her room and slightly more awake, Eliza threw open her closet doors. Her closet, about the size of a normal bedroom, was filled with clothes - there were so many special occasions she had to attend as a princess, and it was unacceptable to wear the same dress to two functions - but not much of the clothing in here would she consider wearing to sneak away from the castle.

This issue was showcased by the fact it took her nearly half an hour to find something even mildly acceptable. The closet was so full of old ball gowns and party dresses she was never going to wear again, dating all the way back to when she was three, she couldn't find anything that resembled what she perceived as normal. There was the gown she had wore the year before at the holiday ball, ice blue with white accents, which had made Eliza feel invisible. And over there was the party dress from her last birthday… um… event… with a box underneath it full of useless expensive trinkets the attendees had given her.

Being in here made Eliza feel sad. She hated the useless build-up, but how was she to get rid of it? She didn't know anyone she could give it to, didn't know anyone who would benefit from it, after all, it was mostly old and dusty dresses and trinkets. Who would want that but the slightly creepy boys who were raised from birth to attempt to woo the princesses?

After a long while of digging, Eliza found the outfit she had worn for flying lessons the year before - a pair of ice blue sweatshorts and a simple but nearly translucent white silk backless top. While it wasn't perfect, Eliza figured she was unlikely to find anything better, so she hurriedly tugged them on, wanting to get out.

Her new outfit on, Eliza cast a simple charm she had learned recently from her magic tutor to change the color of something. Her baby blue wings would temporarily be the color of the wine her mother served at events - a deep purple-red. While making it such a dark color could cause some suspition, she thought it a pretty color regardless, and in the mind of a twelve-year-old that was reason enough.

Certain all the things needed for her disguise - which wasn't really even a disguise, she just didn't want to stick out like a sore thumb - were now in place, Eliza slipped out of her room into the long hallway and made her way with ease to one of the many doors to the large rear courtyard. There, she ran into a spot of trouble.

Her mother was in the courtyard, directing a couple of servants from the air, laying out a gigantic croquet set, perhaps to play with the Vampire Diplomats when they arrived. The problem this presented was that Eliza was well aware she could not sneak past her mother's sharp eyes, so her only real course of action was to hide.

Eliza slipped behind a large white rosebush near the door and tried her hardest to do another spot of magic. This was the easiest magic a Fae could learn, but the real issue would be sustaining it. Eliza was going to shrink herself.

With a flash of magic, Eliza was the size of a child's fist, glowing bright red. She knew that while shrunk, her glow could easily give her away, so she hurriedly dove into the rosebush and cuddled up close to the main stem-trunk-thing. She vaugely wondered what it was called, but pushed the thought out of her mind, dismissing it as unimportant.

She wasn't sure how long she stayed hidden in the rosebush, but it felt like forever. Queen Catherine fussed over every detail, muttering things Eliza didn't much care about, although she caught her mother saying something like, "Not a inch off, no Martha won't like it…" Which made no sense, because Eliza didn't know any Marthas, so she must have misheard.

Finally, the Fae Queen headed back inside, trailed by the servants, who looked harried and harassed. Eliza vaguely wondered if she could not have servants when she was grown up - she didn't much care for seeing such a distressed look on another's face, much less being the cause of it.

With the courtyard finally empty, Eliza let herself revert back to full size - unfortunately forgetting to exit the rosebush before doing so. She fell over, with the rosebush falling on top of her. She managed to quickly extract herself and run off through one of the outer exits to the courtyard, but she tore her clothes and twigs caught in her hair.

Eliza didn't really know where she was going, as she'd never been outside the palace without an extensive escort, but she took careful note of what she passed and which direction she turned.

She didn't know how long she walked, but eventually the false color drained from her wings and the baby blue with large cream-colored spots she normally sprouted took their place. At that point she might should turn back, but -

"Excuse me, do you know anywhere I could find a place to sleep around here?" a voice said as someone tapped her on the shoulder. "I heard it's supposed to rain tonight, and I finally have enough money to maybe sleep somewhere dry…"

Eliza slowly turned around to face the new voice, and was slightly surprised to discover that it belonged to a young boy, about her age perhaps, with slit pupils and red eyes - a vampire. He was carrying two backpacks and wearing the most filthy clothing she'd ever seen, tattered and torn with odd stains she didn't want to know the origin of. Behind him floated a ghost wearing a… sundress, maybe? It would have been knee-length if not for the floaty flare. The dress was paired with a pair of knee-high boots and a jacket-like thing with no real way to close and a high collar. She seemed to be looking at her with mild suspicion… but the boy was talking to her.

"Um…" great way to start, genius. "I mean, hi, yes, probably? My name's Eliza, what's yours?" Wow, Eliza. What a great way to introduce yourself to your first normal friend. Not.

The boy looked slightly startled for a moment, then smiled. "My name's Alexander, it's nice to meet you, Eliza!"

"Alexander… w-well… I mean, the - my house has pl- uh, a spare bedroom, if you wanted to stay at my house while it's raining?" Eliza mentally facepalmed. Worst. First. Meeting. Ever.

The ghost behind Alexander tilted her head and gave Eliza a look. "Is this some kind of trap?"

"Wh-what?" Eliza startled, turning to look at the ghost woman in complete confusion. Why would she do a thing like that? And how? And why again?

"Maman! That's what you said about the merpeople too, and they were nice!" Alexander glanced over his shoulder to address the ghost woman. Oh. She was his mother. Well, that explained why she was there, at the very least.

"I can assure you, this is no trap," Eliza attempted to placate the floating woman, "And besides, how would I set up such a thing? You approached me, after all."

To Eliza's surprise, the woman became to laugh, "Well reasoned! Alright. I trust you. Alexander, if you really want the fae girl's help, I think she is a trustworthy person."

Alexander smiled at Eliza, and then, as if just then noticing, said, "You've got a twig in your hair, Eliza," and pulled it out, frowning in concentration.

Eliza blinked. She shook her head to clear it. Was this what having a friend that wasn't your sister or brother was like? It was nice.

"My house is this way!" Eliza pointed and began to lead her new friend back towards the palace. What would happen when they got there, she was unsure, but at least she could help her new friend - and she was dirty and hardly dressed like a princess, so it was unlikely that he had approached her to take advantage of the royal family, which was the reason her mother used to explain why Eliza wasn't allowed to have commoner friends.

"Thanks!" Alexander trotted along after her, "So I gotta ask - why do your wings only have two colors, and only a really simple pattern? When I see pictures of Fae, usually your wings are really elaborate and colorful."

"Well, because I'm only twelve!" Eliza giggled. "Fae wings grow in when a fairy reaches five years of age, and the color reflects the fae's personality since birth. Then, every five years after, a fae's wings gain a new pattern and color based on their personality over the past five years."

"Really?" Alexander asked, "Is that how it works?"

"Yep!" Eliza chirped in reply, "It's why we put so much stock in wing colors - although we can't actually tell you which personality traits make which exact shade of a color, we know that pure white is ethereal, or 'purity', to the point where it is nearly unattainable, and pitch black is lacking in morals, so it is important that the Fae Queen have pale wings - the royal line can actually be challenged if someone has paler wings than the Queen, but because people with pale wings are pure, they generally don't want to be Queen. A-at least, that's the way I understand it."

"That's really cool!" Alexander grinned, showing off his fangs. "So the Queen has really pale wings?"

"Uh… yeah…" Eliza shrugged, a little uncomfortable discussing her mother in this manner. "Yeah, the Queen has pretty pale green wings. She's the fifth queen in her line, but they are still really pale, considering that."

"So the royal line's wings become darker as generations pass?" Alexander looked very curious.

"Usually a royal line only lasts a few generations, yeah, because the princesses become entitled and snobby, so their wings begin to darken," Eliza shrugged. "Once a challenger queen had pale as snow wings until she took the throne, but from that point forward her wings were tainted darker and darker, starting with a wine-red and then darker from there until a section was black - she was only on the throne for twenty years before a challenger threw her off the throne."

"That's so cool!" Alexander grinned. "How that must affect everyday life…"

Eliza gave him a half-hearted grin. Sure, it was a slightly uncomfortable line of questioning, but Alexander hadn't known that and he honestly seemed very interested…

A car rolled passed them on the road. It was a limousine, black as night with shaped rear-view mirrors - bat wings. Eliza's eyes flew wide, Alexander's narrowed, and his mother quite frankly just looked confused.

The Vampire Diplomats.

Eliza shrieked and grabbed Alexander's hand. "I gotta get home now!" She yelled as she pulled him along.

"What's going on?" Alexander yelled back, his other hand securely holding the straps on his two backpacks.

His mother seemed to also desire answers, since she was flying after them very fast and screeching with anger at her ineffectual attempts to hit Eliza and make her let go of Alexander, since she was, you know, incorporeal.

This bizarre display continued as Eliza carefully navigated them towards the palace, only getting them lost about three times, which was pretty good, all things considered, but the other two didn't really think about where Eliza was going until she burst into the palace rear courtyard - and ran right into her mother, who was attempting to host tea with two highly unimpressed-looking vampires.

"Eliza?!" her mother, shocked, rose from her seat quickly and stared down the young princess. "What is the meaning of this? Where have you been? And who is that?" She gestured at Alexander as though he were some sort of insect she wanted to squish.

Eliza gulped, and glanced around. The vampires looked interested in her appearance, but Eliza wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. Her mother was mad, definitely not good, and Alexander was looking at her mother and taking in her appearance - crown, pale green wings, and all. This could only go downhill.

"I- I'm sorry mother…" Eliza muttered, looking down at her toes.

"Wait…" Alexander said, stunned, "That's the Fae Queen Catherine. And you just called her mother… You're a princess?"

"You should be! Sneaking out like that and returning with this ragamuffin! He looks like he hasn't bathed in months!" Queen Catherine snapped.

"Well, where exactly was he supposed to bathe?" Alexander's mother piped up, drawing Queen Catherine's attention for the first time, "The Witch King burned down our house months ago, and we haven't stopped moving since."

"Rachel Faucette?" the male vampire diplomat stood up and looked at Alexander's mother. "The Rachel Faucette of Cetten?"

"Yes… that's me, but how do you know my name?" Rachel asked, tilting her head and giving the man a look. "Wait - you're George Washington!"

"Yes I am. Your body was the first one recovered from the Cetten Town Massacre," apparently George Washington continued without answering Rachel's question, "Over one hundred vampires were killed, and fifty more have vanished."

"He went on to kill ninety-nine innocents?! The monster!" Rachel screeched, flailing her limbs like an angry windmill.

"Forty-Nine," Alexander interjected. "You said fifty were missing, and I'm here and not there, so therefore forty-nine are still missing."

"This boy… is a displaced victim of the Cetten Town Massacre?" Catherine looked stunned. "How did he end up all the way out here in the Fae Capital?"

"I walked," Alexander deadpanned, causing his mother to start laughing instead of flailing.

"George," The female diplomat said, smiling, "He doesn't have a place to go, and we have so many empty rooms in the house… Besides, I know Gilbert would love to have a friend when we're off doing things like this..."

"While that's a great idea Martha, we just met him and he doesn't know us, surely -"

"You would give me a place to stay?" Alexander looked excited. "Like, really stay and not books-and-fish-and-off-again?"

"Books and fish?" Martha - oh, so that's who her mother had been talking about, Eliza thought - looked confused, but smiled. "Well, regardless, yes. What do you say?"

Alexander looked at his mother, who looked the diplomats up and down and studied their faces carefully, tilting her head this way and that like she was deep in thought, before turning back to Alexander and nodding. Alexander looked back at Martha and said, "Yes."

A couple hours later, George and Martha left, with Alexander and Rachel in tow (those two hours had been great fun getting to know each-other, or at least that was Eliza's opinion. Her mother said she was going to ban Mary Poppins so she never had to hear about it again.), and Eliza was left to bear the consequences of sneaking out - she wasn't allowed to go to the next royal function her mother hosted. After her mother left the room, Eliza rolled her eyes and wondered why she was being rewarded for breaking the rules.

She looked out the window and thought to herself that life might move on, but she wasn't going to forget today, the day she made her first friend - a vampire boy named Alexander.


	5. Chapter 5

Alexander puffed out a loud breath as he set down the last box. Six years ago, they'd had nothing to their collective names but identifications and money they'd stolen from their families before they ran. Now, they had four children and a nice house in Aquarock, and everything was as perfect as he could have ever imagined. Well, except for one eensy, weensy, ginormous detail.

"Daddy!"

Alexander looked up just in time to spot his eldest daughter before she plowed into him. "Oof! Hey, Susie," he lifted her up and spun her around, grinning as she laughed, flashing her little fangs. Her tail wagged at a speed almost imperceptible to the human eye, and her red slit-pupiled eyes gleamed with happiness.

Alexander hugged her close to his chest, ever-protective as always, and was glad Susan was able to be so carefree. As a multi-natural, that was something she wouldn't be able to hold on to forever. The supernatural governments would come looking for her, hunt her down, kill her - if they ever knew of her existence.

"There you are, Susie," Maria smiled as she took the five-year-old from Alexander. "I was wondering where you had run off to."

"There are no more boxes," Alexander informed his 'mistress' after she had picked up their daughter. "This was the last one."

"Not surprising, we didn't exactly purchase an inordinate amount of stuff the last six years, when we were all feverishly aware we could have to up and run at any moment."

"We still might have to do that," alexander pointed out.

"It is a possibility," Maria nodded and gave Alexander a kiss on the cheek, "But after over half a decade, we should hope that we have sufficiently vanished into human society. And besides, you know none of us were still underage when we left, they can't pursue us too much, and even if they tried, which they clearly haven't, we could always find a place to hide."

"Mama!" Susan protested from Maria's arms. "Tell me a story!"

"Alright, what story do you want to hear?"

"Goldihams!"

"How about we get your siblings and I'll tell you all the story of Goldihams, 'kay?"

"'Kay!"

Alexander smiled as they headed farther into the house to collect the other children, and for his part he opened one of the boxes (a book box, unsurprisingly - the moving boxes were 1:1 book boxs or something else) and began to look at each book, determining where in the house it should be located.

"Alexander, you're going to want to hear this," John called to his boyfriend as he entered the house.

"Oh?" Alexander entered the front room, Frances held on his hip.

"Papa!" the young half-merperson, half-werewolf in question yelled in greeting.

"Hello, Frances," John beamed as he took her from Alexander, then his expression turned more serious as he turned back to the vampire. "While I was looking at the new fish brought in for the aquarium today, I learned that there are a couple other supernaturals working there - not because they discovered me, don't look so worried yet - but because I overheard them saying that Lafayette has turned up missing."

Frances furrowed her brow adorably as Alexander sharply sucked in a breath. "Daddy, isn't Laf-a-ette the name of your not-brother?" She asked.

"Yes Franny, it is," Alexander took a deep breath. "But I'm sure it's fine. And even if it wasn't, I couldn't do anything without jeopardizing you, so therefore it isn't worth it, is it?"

Both men chucked as she wrinkled her little nose and asked, "What jep-or-dies-ing mean?"

"It means to put someone or something in danger," Alexander explained. "And it's something I will never do to you. I promise."

"Philip!" Eliza called. "Don't sit on the back of the sofa!"

"Why?" Philip asked, even as he slid down onto the sofa proper, the scales on his legs catching on the pillow, so he had to put it back up.

"Because it's bad for the sofa," Eliza replied as she put away the mixer (bought used, avocado green, real metal so it was cold to the touch).

"Why?"

"Because you're heavy, Pip."

"Why?"

"Because you're a healthy, growing boy."

"Why?"

"Because you have four parents who love you."

"Why?"

"Because we're your parents and we love you."

"Why?"

"Philip, would you like me to put Phineas and Ferb on for you?" Eliza asked, sighing.

Philip looked thoughtful for a moment, then nodded, antennae twitching.

"Alright then."

"An' den, da 'wincess got da evil man wif her happy-'aser, an' he was good again!" Angie declared, throwing the hapless toy pony into the air as the finale of her story.

"I see," Maria nodded at her youngest daughter. "But what if the evil man wasn't unhappy?"

"Den da 'aser kill 'im dead, so he canno' hurt anyone anymor'," Angie nodded, matter of fact.

Maria nodded. "Very interesting," she smiled at the two-year-old. Perhaps the sentiment was a bit morbid, but Angie was half-vampire, half-fairy, and as such could not ever be taught the foolish sentiment that everyone was redeemable. It was unfortunate, but thinking like that could get her killed. Certainly, many people were redeemable, but then there were people like Maria's brother, who were vicious and terrible. But it would all be alright, so long as they taught that to their children, so long as none of them thought the solution was always to forget and forgive.

So long as none of them were ever caught, so long as they were willing and capable to get away if they were ever caught, so long as they were all safe, everything would turn out okay.

"Mama, 'nother game!" Angie beamed at her mother, holding out the pink pony she'd thrown into the air a minute before. "You be Candy!"

"Alright, Angie," Maria smiled. "Queen Candace was ruling over her ponies when a young earth pony came in, asking for an audience, and told her the royal guard was treating earth ponies unfairly…"


End file.
